Atomic-Migration-Controlled Processes in Intermetallics

Abstract

Chemical ordering kinetics in L10- and B2-ordered AB binary intermetallics was simulated by means of Monte Carlo (MC) technique implemented with vacancy mechanism of atomic migration. While vacancy concentration is usually much lower than the antisite defect concentration in L10-ordered systems, triple defects are generated in particular B2–ordered systems. The latter definitely affects the chemical ordering process and requires that full thermal vacancy thermodynamics is involved in B2-ordering simulations. The study on L10-ordered binaries was dedicated to FePt thin layers considered as a material for ultra-high-density magnetic storage media. Metastability of the L10 c-variant with monoatomic planes parallel to the layer surface and off-plane easy magnetization was revealed. Thermal vacancy formation in B2-ordered binaries was modelled by implementing a mean-field Hamiltonian with a specific formalism of phase equilibria in a latticegas composed of atoms and vacancies. It was demonstrated that for particular pair-interaction energetics, equilibrium concentrations of vacancies and antisites result mutually proportional in well-defined temperature ranges. The MC simulations of B2-ordering kinetics involved the modelled equilibrium vacancy concentration and reproduced the experimentally observed low rate of the process.